Arizona weekly citizen., 1887-10-22
DANIEL eooNE's sLocKHouse.
How the Noted Pioneer of Kentucky Pro tected His Family-An Indian Plan.

tected His Family-An Indian Plan.
 Boone began building bis bIockhOuse here on the lSt day Of April, l775 The old pioneer chose wisely his location, and, with an eye only to its utility, chose also one of the love hest spots in the state. I don't suppose he had much time to go, like Dr. Syutax, in search Of the picturesque, but it happened in this instance that he found it without seek ing. You can plainly see to this day the marks of the old blockhouse on the ground. and a little digging in the soft earth with a cane will bring up ashes and bits of old pot tery from the spots where the old fireplaces were. So there Is no obscurity about the matter. You may stand, if you wish, on the veritable Nebo from which old Boone viewed his promised land, and you may be sure your foot is placed on the very soil troiden by tho brave men and braver women who founded this famous commonwealth moro than a hun dred years ago.
 Of course the chief things considered by thoss who built blockhOuseS were the cOnven- fences of water, fuel and provisions. and also an unobstructed view on all sides. Standing here on the site of the fort, you can see at a glance how all these advantages arc combined in this location. You stand perhans 2 hun dred yards from the wave of the Kentucky river, and perhaps forty feet above the waters edge, for the bank slopes up from the swift flowing stream e the very walls of the fort. To the east and south the land is level. with not 6 gully or bank in it large enough to conceal a man for half a mile in both directions In this fertile river bottom Boone had his cornfeld and raised his bread at the very door of bis castle. On the west the ground slopes slowly down to the unfailing spring whence the garrison usually got their supply of water. A we'll sunk inside the fort to the level of this spring, say twenty feet in depth, would, and believe dii, fur nish a bountiful quantity of water when besiegers rendered access to the spring impossible All around arc high hills like the rim of a deep plate, but none of them near enough to per init the guns used in former days to send a bullet into the fort. No foe can approach except to come over the rising ground where be can be easily seen from the upper windows of the blockhouse. Just across the river rises she nearest knob" about 4OO feet above the water, and perhaps as many yards from the fort in a straight line, A man on top of it would be outlined against the sky like a sil- hOGette, for the sun rises over it in the morn Ing and sets against it in the evening
 Altogether this location is just such as you would expect of a man of BOone's great good sens to select. It gives him every advantage and puts bis assailants at the mercy of the garrison It Is related that once the Indians attempted to undermine the fort by digging tunnel from the steep offset of the river bank; but the dirt which they were compelled to throw into tho river discolored the water and so betrayed their designs No trick nor de- vice could be successfully used against the people in the fort, for the sharp eyed pioneers had the vantage ground CKy.) Cor. Chicago Times